Martin becomes the third race winner of the weekend
John Martin took his first TCR Australia victory in Race 3 at The Bend Motorsport Park – also the first for Honda in the championship – from Race 1 winner Garth Tander and James Moffat.
At the start, Tander beat pole-sitter and Race 2 winner Will Brown to Turn 1, with Martin also making up a place to sit in third ahead of Moffat. Martin soon passed Brown for second place and immediately switched his attention to the race leader.
Several cars failed to make the start following incidents in Race 2, although both the Volkswagen Golf GTI cars of Aaron Cameron and Alexandra Whitley started from the pit lane. Whitley’s race, however, only lasted a handful of laps as the technical issues that had forced her to pull up in Race 2 returned and she retired on Lap 3.
After the dramas of the weekend’s previous two races, the final contest was a lost more subdued, although there were a number of position changes among the leaders. Moffat passed Brown for third place on Lap 4, with Jordan Cox also moving past the championship leader to move into fourth position.
On Lap 7 came the move that had looked likely for some time, when Martin dived up the inside of Tander to snatch the lead. The second half of the race was then largely processional, with Martin building a sizeable lead of over 2.7 seconds at the chequered flag. The win meant Martin became the third race winner of the weekend, joining Tander and Brown in claiming a victory at the series’ third race meeting.
With Moffat repeating his third place finish from Race 2, three different car brands were again represented on the podium, with Cox finishing in fourth place ahead of Brown and Russell Ingall who was sixth. Dylan O’Keefe crossed the finish line in seventh place, but was given a ten second penalty for an incident involving Tony D’Alberto and so D’Alberto inherited seventh position and Nathan Morcom, Jason Bright and Leanne Tander all moved up a place. The penalty meant O’Keefe dropped outside the top ten.
Brown has further stretched his leadership in the standings, while Moffat has moved into second, 125 points behind Brown and four ahead of O’Keeffe.
The TCR Australia season reaches its halfway point at the next race weekend, at the Queensland Raceway over the weekend of August 3rd/4th.
Race 3
1. John Martin (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 14 laps
2. Garth Tander (Melbourne Performance, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2.7718
3. James Moffat (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Renault Mégane RS), 3.9081
4. Jordan Cox (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 4.6681
5. Will Brown (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 11.7052
Championship points
1. Brown 356 pts; 2. Moffat 231; 3. O’Keeffe 227
